version in original Dutch (citaat van Jozef Israëls in Nederlands): Dat is altijd lastig [een herhaling maken van een al verkocht schilderij] en kan slechts een potboiler [ding voor de verkoop] worden.
In a letter, 13 Dec. 1876, to art-sellers Pilgeram & Lefèvre in London; Foundation Custodia, Paris,input no. 1971-A.506
Israëls was asked to make a duplicate of his painting 'Karig Maal / The Frugal Meat', but refused it and proposed a painting with the same subject, a shoemaker figure, but now sitting at a cradle with his wife cutting bread in the background
Quotes of Jozef Israels, 1871 - 1900
“If it is only difficult, it is done; if it is impossible, we shall see.”
Si cela n'est que difficile, c'est fait; si cela est impossible, nous verrons.
Response to Marie Antoinette when she informed him that something she needed done might be difficult.
Quoted by François Guizot in Biographie Universelle, Volume 6 http://books.google.com/books?id=za4FAAAAQAAJ&q=%22n'est+que+difficile+c'est+fait+si+cela+est+impossible+nous+verrons%22&pg=PA567#v=onepage (1812)
Original
Si cela n'est que difficile, c'est fait; si cela est impossible, nous verrons.
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Charles Alexandre de Calonne 1
French statesman 1734–1802Related quotes
On his work Hamilton in “Lin-Manuel Miranda on his Broadway smash Hamilton: 'the world freaked out'” https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/25/lin-manuel-miranda-broadway-smash-hamilton-hip-hop-musical-school-of-eminem in The Guardian (2016 Sep 25)
(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Anton Mauve, uit zijn brief:) onze Godin [hoe het schilderen verloopt] is soms zoo grillig, juist als je haar wil spreken, houd zij zich schuil en als je niet direct aan haar dacht, komt ze onophoudelijk hándjes geven en is zoo vriendelijk, enfin - wij zullen zien..
In a letter to Willem Witsen, from The Hague, 28 Dec. 1884?]; original copy from website DBNL https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/wits009brie01_01/wits009brie01_01_0025.php; location of resource: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag: no. KB75 C51
1880's
On mental illness, as quoted on Kenneth Gärdestad: Han ville inte gå någon annan väg än kärlekens väg, Sveriges Radio P4 Sörmland, published on 31 December 2015 (web) https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=87&artikel=6333872
“It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time”
Works of John Dryden (1803) as quoted by P. Fleury Mottelay in William Gilbert of Colchester (1893)
Context: It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more.... But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.
“Who first shall reach the mill, he first shall grind.”
Chi prima giugne al mulin, prima macina.
Gli Sciamiti, Act II., Scene III.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 270.
The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791), Preface.
“Ki is a very complex word… and even more difficult to translate to westerners.”
Aikido: The Co-Ordination of Mind and Body for Self-Defence (1966), as quoted in "What is Ki?" at Brisbane Aikido Republic http://www.aikidorepublic.com/aikiphysics/what-is-ki
“I only have one sentence to say: it is the people who kept you fed, so do as you see fit.”
Wen Jiabao (2008) cited in: In Chinese:军队行动迟缓 温家宝怒摔电话, 16 May 2008, Renminbao.com http://renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2008/5/16/47669.html,
During 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, Wen's angry reply to the PLA rescue team about their delays before they boarded the rescue plane: